Our SOLIDWORKS Advanced Update Training Course has been Updated!

Our SOLIDWORKS Advanced Update Training Course has been recently updated to include new best practices and features included with the latest release of SOLIDWORKS.

The focus of our SOLIDWORKS Advanced Update course is to learn the advanced functionality within the core SOLIDWORKS product including all the features you wish you had known about before.

NOTE: The Advanced Update course is not a replacement for the SOLIDWORKS Essentials, as the course is designed for users that already have a solid foundation in SOLIDWORKS

This online training course will help you to:

• Master the core functionality within SOLIDWORKS.
• Develop a deeper understanding of the latest tools and efficiency techniques in SOLIDWORKS.
• Optimize Components and create Drawings much faster than before.
• Reduce and eliminate errors; know how to troubleshoot parts and assemblies using best practices.

Check out the new lessons below:

Lesson #1: SOLIDWORKS Basics and the User Interface

• Learn the most efficient ways for streamlining interaction with the SOLIDWORKS User Interface. Techniques include a reduction in mouse travel and clicks, keyboard shortcuts, and more. Depending on each designer’s current practices, the time savings will be between 20% to 70%.
• Typically, users, who had already had a lot of experience in using the software, report that this lesson changes their professional life, by helping them stay “in-the-flow”, focusing on designing, not on operating SOLIDWORKS.
• Most self-taught users follow the traditional mode to interact with the SOLIDWORKS user interface:
  • Access commands via static toolbars or Command Manager.
  • Long mouse travel.
  • Multiple clicks in multiple dialog boxes to achieve anything.
  • Repetitive and frustrating.
• The major drawback of the traditional workflow for interacting with SOLIDWORKS is the introduction of micro-distractions in the design process:
  • The eyes are following the cursor all over the place.
  • The brain switches focus from the model to the user interface and from the “design mode” to “icon hunting mode”.
  • The user becomes more concentrated on “using SOLIDWORKS” instead of the next step in the design process.

Expected outcome:

• In just an hour you will master 5 (five) principles for interacting with SOLIDWORKS that would ensure you are always “in the design flow”. These techniques:
  • Are easy to remember.
  • Are easy to adopt.
  • Do not require memorizing tens of keyboard shortcuts.
  • “Make sense”.
  • Minimize mouse movement and keyboard interactions.
  • Keep user focus on the model, not on the icons.
  • Allow the user to be in the flow.

Lesson #2: Patterning

• Learn the best practices for using Patterns, with a focus on the productivity enhancements introduced in the latest three releases of SOLIDWORKS. Leveraging these enhancements can be the difference between “re-inventing the wheel” and fully automating the modeling process.
• This lesson will focus on the latest enhancements in the patterns’ functionality. Currently the pattern feature is not a simple copier of features but more of a blueprint for creating new features with varying design intent.

Lesson #3: Editing —  Repairs

• Sketches and features can lose relations and get error and warning flags for a large variety of reasons. You might need to work with parts created by other people or you might need to break relations during design intent changes, usually as part of the revision process.
• This lesson teaches to most effective diagnostic tools and fast repairing techniques.
• Many students report that they can fix specific problems in one minute, where prior to taking the course it would take them more than 1 hour.

Lesson #4: Editing — Design Changes

• Given that modifying geometry can result in broken features, constrains, relations and mates, you will take advantage of the skills acquired in the previous lesson to quickly troubleshoot and fix what is broken.
• You will master best practices for collaborating and documenting their models. The more information is inserted in the model, the easier it will be for you to understand the design intent in a previous job and quickly modify it to match the new requirements.
• This lesson also covers important best practices for modeling, to minimize the need for modification based on design intent changes.

Lesson #5: Configurations at Part Level

• Learn how to apply the best practices for configuration management directly in projects, including how to suppress features by configuration and how to use the design library to insert features into a part.
  • Configurations can be very efficient but also misused by untrained users. This lesson will teach your team the fastest way to configure a complex part without the need of complex Excel spreadsheets.
  • Will cover the best practices for ensuring the model is fast and responsive.
  • Eliminate the need to re-create the same chain of features over and over.
  • Increase the modeling consistency in your team!

Lesson #6: Bottom-Up Assembly Modeling

• Learn new tools and techniques that enhance assembly modeling efficiency.  Designers will master techniques to double their productivity when building a new or modifying an existing assembly.
• Will re-enforce the “in-the-design-flow” principles started in Lesson 1.

Lesson #7: Using Assemblies

• Master the use of assembly design validation tools like Advanced Static and Dynamic Interference Detection, Hole Alignment, Clearance Verification and more.
• Learn how to use the latest tools and techniques for creating Exploded Views, for assembly instructions and manuals.
• It will reduce the amount of time your users require to create such views by 3 to 5 times.
• It will demonstrate how exploded views could be used for other type of deliverables that otherwise require a long time to create:
  • Process instructions.
  • Assembly Instructions.
  • Videos.
  • Motion studies.
  • Replace the need to create extra configurations.
  • Reduce the need to perform mate management in configurations.

Lesson #8: Multibody Design Techniques

• Learn how to use Boolean operations inside a multibody environment. Knowing how to use Boolean operations at the part and assembly levels could be the difference between wasting time and getting the job done. Sometimes, these types of techniques are the only solutions to modeling challenges. This lesson entails:
  • Understanding the multibody environment functionality.
  • Using Boolean operations to perform quick parametric edits and avoid re-inventing the wheel.
  • Using Boolean operations to eliminate unnecessary geometry complexity by filling internal cavities.

Lesson #9: Advanced Mate Techniques

Learn techniques to easily find, change and configure mates, and how to copy components with mates. This includes how to apply mate references and use them for efficient assembly.

Goals:

• The outcome gained from lesson 1 also apply here too. It is all about being in the flow when working with assemblies. Your users could become 2 to 5 times faster at the end of the course.
• Increase the modeling consistency in your team!

Lesson #10: Assembly Editing

• Learn tools and best practices to identify assembly needs to better meet design requirements. This includes replacing and modifying components, troubleshooting an assembly, controlling dimensions in an assembly and mirroring components.
• This lesson is a must for power users in the conceptual phase of the design or when performing revisions. Due to the nature of the typical concept development process, users continuously create and destroy features in the parts, replace components and change mates. Because of that, knowing how to quickly troubleshoot the errors created by design intent changes is essential for maximizing efficiency.

Lesson #11: Using Configurations with Assemblies

• Learn the best practices for using Assembly level configurations as well as the latest tips and tricks to expand capabilities in performing the following functions:
  • Design automation and simplification.
  • Quick bulk edits and revisions.
  • Alternate position views.
  • Custom Property management.
  • Table generation.

Goals:

• This lesson will help users adopt the new tools in configuration management, and:
  • Reduce time.
  • Increase robustness and predictability.
  • Reduce the need to create new configurations .
  • Study the movement of your assemblies with ease.

Lesson #12: Display States and Appearances

• Learn how to use display states in assemblies, as a time-savings tool for working with large assemblies. Designers will understand the separate roles of configurations and display states in an assembly, and the best practices for selecting the best tool for the job.
• Learn how to use advanced selection tools and create selection sets for additional time savings when working in large assemblies. This includes how to reuse such selections as input for many operations.

Goals:

• This is one of the most important lesson for your power-users.
• It is focused primarily on:
  • Speed.
  • Reduce or even eliminate repetitive tasks.
  • Increase consistency in your team when working with assemblies.
  • Reduce the need to create configurations.
  • Increase efficiency when working with large assemblies and drawings.
  • Ultimately increase the modeling consistency in your team!

Lesson #13: Introduction to Large Assembly Management

• This lesson is a great introduction to the Large Assembly Management best practices, tools and techniques. Topics include:
  • Main causes of assembly slow-down.
  • Troubleshooting tools and techniques.
  • Optimization and simplification techniques.
  • Maximizing productivity by learning how to use the best tool to complete the task on hand.
• After taking this lesson, users who experience slow-downs with their assemblies and drawings will be well prepared to attend the SOLIDWORKS Large Assembly and Drawing Productivity Workshop »

Interested in the SOLIDWORKS Update Course?

Check the schedule for upcoming courses. Or get a quote for the course and let us know the date and location where you require training.

Plus learn more about our On-the-job Coaching and Customized SOLIDWORKS Training services.